Radio Universitaria

THE NEW BREED OF COLLEGE (& HIGH SCHOOL) INTERNET RADIO
SURVIVING THE DINOSAUR
A Guide to creating a fun, productive student-run Internet radio station

Backbone Networks Corporation Tel: 508-753-5665 backbone.com

Contents
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Student Radio — Education’s First Social Network 1 Old School Radio 1 You’re NotAlone 2 The Future of Big Commercial Radio Technology & Yours 2 What Is Internet Radio? 3 Benefits of an Internet station 3 How do people listen to Internet radio? 4 How to thrive while the big boys wane 5 Elements of Streaming Stations, and how they are Configured Studio 6 Storage 6 Streaming 6 The Make/Buy/Rent Decision 7 Comparing Two College Radio Hosting Alternatives 7 There’s afourth “S”…Software 8 for Automation, Scheduling and Logging/Reporting Covering Remote (Mobile) Events 9 Sports, News, Concerts, etc. Joining a Radio Network 10 Syndication 11 Content Delivery from the Cloud The Dreaded Royalty Quagmire 12 NONCOMMERCIAL EDUCATIONAL WEBCASTERS 12 Should you pay it yourself or outsource payment? 13 It’s really not that bad 13 So, should you opt for the$100 proxy fee or report? 13 Partners with a Mission 14 14

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THE NEW BREED OF COLLEGE (& HIGH SCHOOL) INTERNET RADIO

SURVIVING THE DINOSAUR

Backbone Networks Corporation developed this guide as a brief look at the role of “College Radio”, specifically student-run Internet stations in colleges, universities and high schools in the UnitedStates. We will examine how they will not only survive the collapse of commercial, terrestrial radio, but can flourish in this now totally digital medium.

Introduction
Our purpose in distributing this paper is to help schools, including colleges, universities and high schools, develop productive, fun, and professional sounding student-run Internet radio stations for the benefitof students, alumni and the schools themselves. This is important, because around our nation we are seeing fiscal cutbacks in many areas, not the least of which is student radio. Schools are selling off their expensive terrestrial radio stations, and it’s not clear to most people why this is happening and how schools can recover from this move. This paper will address how schools can notonly recover from such a sale, but actually benefit from it.

Student Radio — Education’s First Social Network
From the beginning, college radio has been about building “community” in, around and between schools and their students. Each station creates a following based on music genre, on-air talent, events, etc., resulting in a type of social community among listeners and radio staff.While today social networks have expanded, the role and importance of student radio is no less than it ever was. However, facing severe budget constraints, but aided by digital technology, the technological model of the radio station is changing. This new model finds Internet radio challenging legacy terrestrial radio, and with it adding to the reach of the station, the benefit to theschools and the community of its students.

Old School Radio
When we think of radio, we naturally envision over-the-air (terrestrial) waves that propagate on different frequencies to the radio receiver in our cars, kitchens and bathrooms. Most music stations today are frequency modulated (FM) for high fidelity, while most amplitude modulated (AM) stations are news and talk. Bothrequire a studio of some sort, a transmitter and tower, plus a studio-transmitter link between them. The higher the power (watts) and the taller the tower (meters), the farther the station can reach. However, it’s not easy, simple or cheap to set up your own traditional high power terrestrial radio station. Your station’s frequency (in MHz or kHz) must be approved by the government...